Meet The Makers: The man who gets millions of Xperia owners out of bed everyday

No one likes being woken up in the morning, so if you are going to be torn from the sweet embrace of sleep, it needs to be by something that doesn’t make you want to throw your smartphone out of the window.

Did you ever stop to think that it’s actually someone’s job to compose the alarm music that wakes you up? Well, it is and the experts at Xperia have been working on making the process of getting up that little more bearable.

To learn more, we dropped in on Jun-ichi Nagahara who has worked for Sony in Tokyo for 27 years and is a Sound and User Interface Designer, AKA the mastermind behind the music that starts your day, every day.

First off, how does it feel to wake up Xperia users every morning?

It’s an immense responsibility; millions of Xperia users are relying on us to ensure they get out of bed. It’s a job we take very seriously.

What makes a good piece of music to wake up to?

It has to have a good melody-line, it’s the morning so it needs to be quite gentle with a simple arrangement and of course it has to be specially mastered to suit a phone alarm.

How did you decide on the default Xperia alarm tone?

We did lots of ‘Shingi’ (deliberation, discussion) to decide, and, of course, lots and lots of testing.

How have alarms and ringtones developed alongside the progression of smartphones?

For each Xperia generation, there are total design concepts for each new product. We need to consider the new design concept and make sure the sounds fit – all aspects of the phone have to work in harmony, even the alarms.

What alarm tone wakes you up in the morning?

Personally, I use the Xperia default alarm on the Z3 Compact, I use it alongside the Sleep Cycle Alarm Clock app (available via the Google Play Store, an intelligent alarm clock that analyses your sleep and wakes you in the lightest sleep phase.)

Finally, what’s the trick to avoiding the snooze button?

I find putting the phone as far away from the bed as possible does the trick, the other side of the room for example, it just means you have to get up to turn it off. I also like to think that we make good alarm-music that people want to wake up and listen to!

So there you have it, the next time you get aggravated by your alarm, think about how much more annoying if it would be if it wasn’t for the tireless work of Jun-ichi Nagahara to make it that much more bearable.